Health Equity & Social Justice

Last year, more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the Mexico-U.S. border looking for their parents or better opportunities. But the journey north can entail serious trauma and suffering. What are the long-term mental health issues such children face?

Fresno County continues to be plagued with high teen pregnancy rates and even higher STD rates in some cases among the worst in the state. With that in mind local health leaders are urging one Valley school district to bring back sex education to the classrooms.

Twenty-one journalists from around the nation will receive reporting grants from the new Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being, the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism and the National Health Journalism Fellowship.

Less than a decade ago, Native Hawaiians represented about a third of the children in Hawaii’s foster care system. Today, they comprise half the state’s foster population of 2,200. Why is that? And what initiatives show the most promise in helping reduce the disparity? A new series will investigate.

Every day as I drive to my office at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I pass homes with yard signs stating “Black Lives Matter and “I heart Ferguson,” but also, “We must stop killing each other,” a nod to the constant human stress, trauma and, ultimately, shortened life expectancy in these communities.

In Asian families, raising a child with autism spectrum disorder means not only piles of bills, long wait-lists and underfunded programs, but also a life of double isolation. What might be done to offer such families more support and services?

The East End community in Lexington, Kentucky has long had its struggles. Nearly two decades ago, officials unveiled major new plans to revamp a neighborhood suffering from high crime, housing shortages, poor schools and other urban ills. But the plan didn't go as expected. What happened?

The concept of "toxic stress" has rapidly gained currency in recent years to explain the damaging effects sustained stress and instability can have on young children. Reporter Daisy Rosario is exploring how such stress impacts underserved communities, and how it might be addressed through services.

By all accounts Charles should have been a success – middle-class upbringing, positive extracurricular activities and a Boy Scout. His future was bright. The opportunities were endless. Instead Charles ended up in the criminal justice system, a long fall for an Eagle Scout. What happened?

In Florida, only one in three children receive adequate preventive care, and the state ranks 50th out of 51 states and D.C. in per-child spending. Reporter Maggie Clark will look into what happens when the nation's third-largest state starts "nickel-and-diming preventive care for children."